1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a battery connector having pivotable dual compression contacts for reliably mating with a battery and easily mounting to a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
A battery connector is used for transmitting power from a battery to an electronic device. Such a battery connector is, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,027,381 and 6,077,130. The connector generally has an insulative housing and resilient contacts arranged in the housing. Each of the resilient contacts has a mating portion for contacting with the battery and a mounting portion for mounting onto a printed circuit board (PCB). The mounting portion is soldered to a predetermined position on the PCB by surface mount technology (SMT), which results in complex process and increased manufacture cost. Similar battery connectors are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,885,090 and 6,113,440.
The connectors disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,885,090 and 6,113,440 each have contact which due to their configuration, cannot have sufficiently large resiliency to ensure a reliable connection thereof with a mating battery worse, after a long time of use, the contacts may fatigue to entirely load intended their function, which may result in loose and unreliable connections between the contacts and the battery due to insufficient resiliency and metal fatigue of the contacts after a long term of use.
Furthermore, the contacts of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,885,090 and 6,113,440 are securely fixed in housings thereof, whereby mating portions of contacts thereof only can move slightly within a limited range, which limits a loading direction of a mating battery to either connector of the two patents.
Hence, a battery connector with improved contacts is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art device as disclosed above.
One object of the present invention is to provide a battery connector having pivotable contacts to ensure a reliable connection with a mating battery.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a battery connector allowing convenient loading of a battery in both vertical and horizontal directions.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a battery connector which can be mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) without soldering.
An electrical connector according to the present invention includes an insulative housing defining a plurality of passageways, a pivot portion mounted in an upper portion of the housing, a holding portion mounted in a lower portion of the housing, first contacts received in the passageways and rotatablely engaging with the pivot portion, and second contacts each having a connecting portion insert molded in the holding portion.
The first contacts separate from the second contacts when the connector is not mated with the battery, and are rotated to engage with the second contacts when the battery is brought to mate with the connector by engaging with the first contacts.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.